Onion
Onion appears in 25,280 indexed US food products. No FDA SAFFA status or CSPI rating is attached in this snapshot, so this page reports prevalence rather than a safety verdict.
What the data can answer
Onion appears in 25,280 catalogued products, but this snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to it. This page therefore cannot answer whether the ingredient is safe from those sources. It can show how often it occurs, where it tends to sit on labels, and which kinds of products contain it.
- 25,280
- catalogued products
- #32
- usage rank of 247,206
- 4,418
- named brands represented
- 53%
- average depth down ingredient lists
Catalog prevalence comes from Open Food Facts ingredient lists. FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine labels are shown only when the source record contains them.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 6053 of 25280 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 1/2 LA Brea Three Cheese Loaf; 10 bean soup mix; 10,000 Lakes No-Salt Blend to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Onion itself. The ingredient most often sits in the lower half of the list, and Condiments supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
6053 of 25,280 linked records have some flagged component
All 24383 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
Onion: top-decile catalog footprint (#32 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #32
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 53%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 26,023 products listing it (mean slot 14.8). Onion usually falls in the lower half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.
Computed from parsed product ingredient lists (Open Food Facts). The ranking covers 247,206 ingredients that appear at least once. Neither usage rank nor label depth is a safety clearance.
What else is usually in the same product as Onion
Across the 25,280 products on this site that list Onion, these flagged additives appear alongside it most often. The comparison column is how often each one appears across every product with a parsed ingredient list, so the two figures are measured over the same set. Caramel Coloring shows up about 2.3x more often with Onion than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Onion products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 3,310 | 13.1% | 5.7% |
| Carrageenan | 1,090 | 4.3% | 4.5% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 1,011 | 4% | 2.4% |
| BHT | 491 | 1.9% | 1.1% |
| BHA | 467 | 1.8% | 0.7% |
Co-occurrence describes what manufacturers formulate together. It is not a claim that these additives interact, and it carries no regulatory meaning. Counted over products with parsed ingredient lists; Open Food Facts, 2026-09-01.
How do the sampled products compare?
Each point is one of the 16 sampled products listed below: its overall safety score against how many separately flagged ingredients its label carries. Bubble size is the number of ingredient rows the label actually resolved to.
Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Onion
Products Containing Onion
High-volume slice (16 of 25,280) for products naming Onion:
Onion vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Onion sits among other busy catalog rows (25,280 products, mean score 96.1/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: Color · Preservative · Garlic Powder. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
What to do with this Onion record
Use the 25,280-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Open the product sample for Onion and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Browse ingredient records
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Onion — common follow-ups
Does Onion carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. This snapshot does not attach a standalone FDA/CSPI verdict to Onion. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Onion? ▼
Onion ranks in the top decile by product count (#32 of 247,206), appearing in 25,280 indexed products led by Condiments. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Onion so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Onion appears in 25,280 products (#32 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Onion). Safety ratings: CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence: Open Food Facts via PlainFoodSafe (September 2026). Figures are computed from those sources, no editor-typed counts. Methodology · State regulations.